[Closed] F1 2020 (spoilers abound)

I must say that I couldn't help smiling when I saw this news and wondered what Christian Horner's first response was! Supposedly Red Bull are committed to F1 until 2025 so I suspect they won't pull out. I also can't see them going back to Renault after their recent, friendly relations. I would expect zero chance of them getting a Merc engine which leaves Ferrari or, as suggested above, some sort of consortium / private engine deal. Or maybe VW coming in. Although, if you were VW would you come into a sport where one of your big commercial competitors is busy scooping up everything in sight knowing that it will take a chunky investment and time before you could compete effectively? Although, how much does F1 performance and reliability actually translate into customers buying their products or even how they reflect on the brand? For me, it wouldn't matter how dominant Renault are in F1, I would still be highly unlikely to ever buy a Renault road car for my self.

It's not a massive shock, Honda have bailed from F1 before in the wake of the banking crisis in 2008 and the recession at the beginning of the 1990s but it does leave Red Bull in a bit of a quandary for 2022.

Another thought is that Red Bull might be able to put together a consortium of independent teams (McLaren, Williams, Aston Martin, Hass) and try to buy the rights to the Honda engine, then commission Cosworth or someone to build it for them, with each team badging it as their own

It's possible - see the Benetton Mecachrome & Williams Supertec arrangement back in 1998/9, in both cases the arrangement was a holding pattern until Renualt bought Benetton outright and Williams' partnership with BMW was ready. Honda may not be willing to surrender intellectual property, so there may be an opportunity for a semi-works Mugen type operation to maintain supply, but the lack of works funding doesn't bode well for power unit development.

As much as I'd like to see Porsche/Audi/Lamborghini/etc in F1, I highly doubt that the VW group would be ready to jump in for 2022 with a year's lead time to design, prototype, dyno test and manufacture a highly complex powertrain and hope to have any degree of competitiveness compared with Renualt, Ferrari and Mercedes who've seven seasons of engine development behind them. If I had £1 for every article that postulated a VW F1 engine, I'd have a fiver - I recall reading that VW had a prototype 3 litre engine "on the bench" as far back as 1999, with rumours dropped at regular intervals that came to nought. Remember that VW too is going to be hamstrung by post-Covid economic difficulties and is likely to face continuing legal costs in respect of dieselgate.

My guess is that Red Bull will buy/lease Honda’s engine IP and have someone like Cosworth, build supply and develop the engine from which they then buy it, at least in the short term.

Hell, an independent engine supplier might also be able to supply to Haas and others. The Honda engine seems pretty darn good, so I doubt it’s going to go away entirely. It’ll be bought by someone and sold back into F1.

Honda don’t want to commit resources to developing a dead end, but if they can generate revenue from existing infrastructure and IP, they’d be mad not to lease it out and recover some of their sunk costs.

Whereas I don’t think any mainstream road vehicle is using MGUH. Merc did have a supercar engine in development with it, not sure if it’s still happening.

This one...

https://www.mercedes-amg.com/en/driving-performance/future-performance/mercedes-amg-project-one.html

simondbarnes
Full Member

Whereas I don’t think any mainstream road vehicle is using MGUH. Merc did have a supercar engine in development with it, not sure if it’s still happening.

This one…

https://www.mercedes-amg.com/en/driving-performance/future-performance/mercedes-amg-project-one.html
Posted 6 minutes ago

That's it, what a car 😍

Didn't Honda run a DH MTB team for a few years, including developing some pretty good gear box bikes? Then they left the sport and destroyed the bikes and never shared the designs. If that's their approach for a niche sport they have no interest in, it seems a stretch that they'd share technology that is pretty fundamental to their main business. Suppose it all depends on the price though.

But they did share knowledge and even resources when they exited in 2008/2009 with Brawn.

Then they left the sport and destroyed the bikes and never shared the designs

Wasn't it just a derailleur in a box?

I think they felt guilty about doing it with zero notice and wanted to help the team keep going. TBH I think they behaved pretty honourably. This time round it is different.

Wasn’t it just a derailleur in a box?

Shhh! You’ll let the magic smoke out. There’s a video here of inside the box

https://www.pinkbike.com/video/8166/

Huh, hadn't seen that before. Still quite impressive for their first bike to be good enough to win a world cup on the first go, but then they do make mx bikes, and their riders weren't bad.

Back on topic then, has anyone checked 2020 Honda engines don't say Mercedes on them if you take the lid off?

if the petrol engine is a dead end commercially for car companies what is the point of the rules that require the f1 engine to be efficient as the technology has no relevance to the products manufacturers will be selling or to the world at large?

if the engine rules weren’t so complicated more companies could produce competitive engines at lower costs.

why not accept that F1 is an anachronism and embrace the fact that it is pointless and wasteful and make gas guzzling v12’s or whatever? or will they soon be moving to hydrogen fuel cells?

no doubt these are not original questions, but the engine situation seems to make the whole sport even more pointless (aside from providing entertainment, jobs, etc)

Honda didn't destroy the bikes. Greg minnaar has one in his shop in South Africa.

From about 3:30

john
Free Member

Didn’t Honda run a DH MTB team for a few years, including developing some pretty good gear box bikes? Then they left the sport and destroyed the bikes and never shared the designs. If that’s their approach for a niche sport they have no interest in, it seems a stretch that they’d share technology that is pretty fundamental to their main business. Suppose it all depends on the price though.

Matthew Carter (ex lotus ceo) on Missed Apex podcast said that this announcement wasn't a shock to the team and was implying RB might take over development of the engine. He also mentioned that Andy Cowell who headed up Mercedes' engine programme resigned a while back...

Wouldn't be unprecedented (mechachrome)

why not accept that F1 is an anachronism and embrace the fact that it is pointless and wasteful and make gas guzzling v12’s or whatever? or will they soon be moving to hydrogen fuel cells?

Hydrogen powered V12s. Bring it on.

F1 as a spectacle has been pretty uninspiring for a few years now. The racing in touring cars and rallycross has always been more exciting to watch. Formula E for me is a terrible excuse for a sport, dull as ditchwater. I can see formula 1 having a supplied sealed engine for all teams to keep the costs down and then the teams rely on their chassis, tyre and fuel strategy to try and make a spectacle out of it. To appease the green lobby carbon offsets will have to be done to enable them to still use internal combustion.

The actual racing is already carbon offset and only makes up under 1% of the total carbon, the elephant in the room is the emissions from logistics.

I thought the aim was to be totally clean in less than 5 years?

Reading Schumacher in at Alfa, Giovinazi out, looking for a decent source...edit - ignore - bullshit source

eddiebaby
Full Member

I thought the aim was to be totally clean in less than 5 years?

Yeah I think that's the longer term goal, 10 years or something.

Weirdly i read an article about f1 already being carbon offset since 97
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/56953/f1-already-carbon-neutral-since-1997

Looking like Baku might be off the calendar next season. I know F1 loves going to countries run by despots and dictators but I can't remember them going to countries actively at war.

More from missed apex on RB taking over the Honda engine:

https://twitter.com/MissedApexF1/status/1313406160792440832?s=19

Remember when F1 could only afford 1 camera on a car per race?

Who was the driver who was often the selected camera car but often seemed to be out in the early stages?

Ooo, good question - I had to look it up! 🙂

They'd had cameras before, but only in practice - Depailler at Montreal in the wet is fantastic (Convert won't like it 😉 ).

Class!

fog delays play
https://twitter.com/fergieweather/status/1314463570994835456

https://twitter.com/wearetherace/status/1314507532401029121

Shame that Mick didn't get his chance to run in FP1.

The weather is going to throw a few curveballs this weekend, tyre management in cold, damp conditions will be interesting.

I assume if the helicopter can't fly during the planned race time it will be cancelled then?

Yep. No chopper, no action. (Not the title of the John Wayne Bobbett autobiography).

Kimi’s answer to a ‘how are you going to get/keep the tyres to temperature’ question yesterday: ‘Drive fast.’

https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/status/1314580017914023937

Tomorrow morning is going to be a bit intense.

https://twitter.com/Noemidemiguel/status/1314893120144904192

I assume if the helicopter can’t fly during the planned race time it will be cancelled then?

There used to be a requirement to have an alternative option for road transportation to a designated hospital specifically for the race but not for practice, hopefully that is still in place. I think it was to account for a big crash where there were more casualties than spaces on the helicopter, it was all detailed in Sid Watkins' book but that's a decade old now.

Be a real shame if the weekend is cancelled, a mixed condition race with no time for the teams to optimise setups and strategies could be brilliant fun!

They’ve set up a heliport below the usual cloud bank. It’s close enough to drive there in an ambulance, transfer to the chopper and get to the hospital inside the time limit.

Surely that rubber duck should have been called Quack Brabham.

Anyway, the race looks to have some potential judging by qualifying.

Amused by Vettel saying that his result was “the best I could do with this car” when his teammate is 7 places further up the grid 🤔

Sounds like a pretty honest statement from Vettel. If it was “that’s as good as can be done with the car” then there’d be reason to question it

Yeah but in Q2, 0.1 of a second separated p4 and P10. Leclerc could have easily found himself P10. Admittedly Vettel is still 0.4s off the back of that group.

Sounds like a pretty honest statement from Vettel.

Well, yeah, that’s kind of what I mean: kind of an admission that he can’t drive through the shortcomings of the car on the way that drivers like Alonso, Hamilton or Verstappen can.

Anyway, more importantly, given that the duck belongs to Williams I suppose it should be Quack Villeneuve.

Not Ayrton Swimma?

Sounds like a pretty honest statement from Vettel.

This headline says a lot - they don't understand what is happening with their car.

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2020/10/10/leclerc-at-a-loss-to-explain-ferraris-improved-pace/

Well, yeah, that’s kind of what I mean: kind of an admission that he can’t drive through the shortcomings of the car on the way that drivers like Alonso, Hamilton or Verstappen can.

Ah, getcha now. Usually around here any Vettel quoting is an attempt at sniping

Agree on the duck though

the car breaker!

Usually around here any Vettel quoting is an attempt at sniping

Well it sort of was 🙂 I seem to be morbidly fascinated by Vettel’s tribulations over the past three years or so.

Decent race. Turn 1 looked a bit slippery at points 🙂

Hulkenberg now has as many top-8 finishes this season as Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.eifel-gp-facts-and-stats-hamilton-makes-history-and-mercedes-equal-ford.2yZV42FfS31PwJ410layRm.html

While I do feel a bit sorry for Bottas and his bad luck with the engine I can't help feeling that his misplaced confidence at the end of the Russian GP was shown up this weekend. Sure, an outstanding qualifying lap and was very feisty at the first couple of corners but, once again, buckled under the pressure. Not sure if he would have been able to hold off Max V for the race or not. I think his retirement has all but confirmed Lewis as World Champion for this season

I thought Lewis securing the world champs was basically secured around 4 races ago?

When Albon was backed into the garage my first thought was Helmut had sacked him on the spot and told him to go a clear his motorhome! 🙂

Until they have a top-drawer driver from their driver academy they need to stick Hulk or Perez in that car. They won't challenge Max but they would bring the second car home in decent points scoring positions.

I assume that wasn't the ski helmet that Mick was handing over.

BigJohn
Full Member

I assume that wasn’t the ski helmet that Mick was handing over.

Don't be a dick.

https://twitter.com/ChrisMedlandF1/status/1315580073366507520